The Medieval Pageants

The plays in this collection are what have come to be known as either Corpus Christi (in Latin: "Body of Christ") pageants, church-staged dramatizations of biblical stories, or guild pageants, "short plays acted by various trade guilds as episodes of the whole Corpus Christi cycle." Such plays were written and performed throughout the church year to mark celebrations and remembrances of the various events of Christ's life and teachings in particular, and of Bible stories in general. The pageants in this collection were written in England in the 1500's. The term "pageant" also referred to the vehicle in which the dramas were performed, a kind of horse-drawn wagon with two levels—a dressing-room area below, and a playing area above. The pageant, both wagon and play, moved from place to place within medieval towns, and were seen by large audiences gathered in the open...